A comprehensive study of Soviet Iraqi relations from the establishment of the Ba'th regime in 1968 to the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.

From the beginning of the Ba'th regime in 1968 to the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, Iraq was the Soviet Union's most important ally in the Middle East. Haim Shemesh explores the evolution of this Soviet-Iraqi relationship - one that Moscow often exploited - concentrating on the impact of the 1969-1975 and 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq conflicts on the fluctuations in Soviet-Iraqi ties and also examining other issues relevant to the alliance: the Iraqi communist party, the Kurdish problem, and developments in the Arab East, including the Arab-Israeli dispute. Shemesh's conclusions, based on comparative analyses of Soviet, Arab and Western sources, contribute to a better understanding of not only Soviet-Middle Eastern relations, but also Soviet-Third World relations in general.

This book examines the history of the relationship between these two centuries during the past twenty years and attempts to dispel the misconception that the Soviet Union has enjoyed undue influence over Iraq.

This book examines how the rulers in the Persian Gulf responded to the British announcement of military withdrawal from the Gulf in 1968, ending 150 years of military supremacy in the region. The British system in the Gulf was accepted for more than a century not merely because the British were the dominant military power in the region. The balance of power mattered, but so did the framework within which the British exercised their power. The search for a new political framework, which began when the British announced withdrawal, was not simply a matter of which ruler would amass enough military power to fill the void left by the British: it was also a matter of the Gulf rulers – chiefly Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the ruling shaykhs of the lower Gulf – coming to a shared understanding of when and how the exercise of power would be viewed as legitimate. This book explores what shaped the rulers’ ideas and actions in the region as the British system came to an end, providing a much-needed political history of the region in the lead-up to the independence of the UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar in 1971.

The position of the Persian Gulf as the main highway between East and West has long given this region special significance both within the Middle East and in global affairs more generally. This book examines the history of international relations in the Gulf since the 1820s as great powers such as Britain and the US, and regional powers such as Iran and Iraq, vied for supremacy over this geopolitically vital region. It focuses on the struggle for control over the islands of the Gulf, in particular the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb – an issue that remains highly contentious today. It describes how for 170 years Britain eroded Iranian influence in the Gulf, both directly by asserting colonial rule over Iranian islands and port districts, and also through claiming Iranian islands for their protégés on the Arab littoral. It shows how, after Britain's withdrawal, these islands became a pawn in the animosity and conflict that pitted, at one time, Arab radicals and nationalists against monarchical Iran, and, later, the conservative-moderate Arab camp against Islamic Iran. It goes on to explore the impact of the rise of American power in the Gulf since the start of the 1990s, its policy of containment of Iran and Iraq, and how this has provided encouragement to the ambitions of the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states, especially the UAE, towards the islands of the Gulf.

This bibliography, first published in 1957, provides citations to North American academic literature on Europe, Central Europe, the Balkans, the Baltic States and the former Soviet Union. Organised by discipline, it covers the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences and technology.

By analyzing political terms, concepts, and idioms as used by Saddam Hussein and the Ba'th regime, author Ofra Bengio illuminates Iraq's political culture and the events that these expressions have both reflected and shaped.

The Cold War shaped the world we live in today - its politics, economics, and military affairs. This book shows how the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created the foundations for most of the key conflicts we see today, including the War on Terror. It focuses on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - gave rise to resentments and resistance that in the end helped topple one superpower and still seriously challenge the other. Ranging from China to Indonesia, Iran, Ethiopia, Angola, Cuba, and Nicaragua, it provides a truly global perspective on the Cold War. And by exploring both the development of interventionist ideologies and the revolutionary movements that confronted interventions, the book links the past with the present in ways that no other major work on the Cold War era has succeeded in doing.

History of Reagan's victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War and his defeat at the hands of his domestic political opponents, who sought accommodation with Moscow over victory. The book traces the climax of a two-decade-long struggle within the American establishment over strategy, known as the Iran-Contra scandal. As detailed in this volume, the scandal masked both the president's political defeat and the fundamental change that occurred in American national security strategy.